Concept Art Thread v2

So, since the original Concept Art Thread is almost entirely a fanart-fest, I decided it might be a good idea to make a new thread, to focus the energy of all our wonderfully creative and eager artists into things that will be much more useful to development.

For this thread to avoid the same fate, we need some Rules and Guidelines:

Have some idea in mind which you want to draw -- a clear concept of some aspect of gameplay

When you're drawing, make many variations of your concept

Avoid spending too much effort on any particular variation -- it's effort not spent on making more :P!

Take notes of design decisions, gameplay considerations, and any other notes you think would be relevant to modellers, devs, and so on.

When you post, spoiler page-stretchers

And of course, include your notes! Concept art without the discussion notes simply leaves us guessing, and makes it difficult to refine the concept.

Refining concepts is also important -- discussions around a piece of concept art, and subsequent pieces of art that refine the concept further are welcome from anyone.

Requests are welcome here, for things currently relevant for development.

And so, let the arting begin!

Last edited by moopli on Tue Jul 08, 2014 12:51 pm; edited 3 times in total

Uh okay yeah I guess when I say it's not time to post art here yet, I really mean go ahead and post all the art you want [/sarcasm]

Then again, the OP is probably pretty unclear on that, since you posted what counts as concept, not art; so don't feel bad, I was just unclear. Leave it up, just spoiler it cuz it stretches the page. We can get to discussing your art once we've actually set the rules for this thread. However, until then. Rules discussion?

Sorry, right. Got it. When you said rules disscussion I thought you were referring to discussing with one of the higher ranked developers such as nick or scio.Edit: man I really need to stop skimming over OPs

Ok, so i have come up with a couple of ground rules to put on the list:-All concept art must be annotated or explained to show the features demonstrated-All page-stretchers must be in spoilers-Any concept arts demonstrating new ideas must have the ideas explained fully

Sweet. Yeah you had a good point on the other thread -- maybe starting with a rules discussion just slows things down. So I'm gonna rush myself a little and incorporate your suggestions and rewrite the OP and get this show on the road.

A concept for the cell / creature editor. It is a replacement for the organelle bar on the right. It is similar to the inventories of Robocraft and Minecraft. This use of an inventory has two main benefits:-You have more space to build your cell/creature-Easier to add more organelle then the current method

-You have more space to build your cell/creature-Easier to add more organelle then the current method

I think the space issue could be mitigated by allowing the player to move the camera while editing. However, this method would indeed make things a tad simpler. Unfortunately, it's possible that it will make things more laborious for the player, having to go to and from the two screens... Unless it's a separate window or something.

Also, a couple questions...1. What are the membrane shapes for, seeing as the membrane'll be generated by whatever hexagons are selected as part of the cell?2. Is this an alternative to the parts bar on the right (coming soon to a download page near you), or for the longer-term scrollable parts bar?

-You have more space to build your cell/creature-Easier to add more organelle then the current method

I think the space issue could be mitigated by allowing the player to move the camera while editing. However, this method would indeed make things a tad simpler. Unfortunately, it's possible that it will make things more laborious for the player, having to go to and from the two screens... Unless it's a separate window or something.

Also, a couple questions...1. What are the membrane shapes for, seeing as the membrane'll be generated by whatever hexagons are selected as part of the cell?2. Is this an alternative to the parts bar on the right (coming soon to a download page near you), or for the longer-term scrollable parts bar?

0. Yes, it is a separate window. Think minecraft inventory.

1. This is an application of a possible future method of cell creation, using metaballs and curved lines to create membrane shapes. Think path tool on GIMP or photoshop. These are just some pre-made shapes for players to use in the creation of their cells.

2. The bar on the right is not for separate parts, they are categorys of parts. For instance, in the 'movement' category (symbolized by a flagellum) you would find cilia, flagella, jets (think jellyfish) etc...

Hope this answers your questions! Sorry it wasn't very clear in the OP

There shouldn't be a distinction between inventory and shop. One doesn't pay to unlock organelles, and then place those bought organelles if they so desire. Rather, they pay mutation points every time they add any organelle, even if they've placed one already.

Also, I think the interface could be made more minimalistic. I think there's few enough organelles that we could have them all on the same page without having to switch between categorized tabs (which are kind of arbitrary). I was thinking we could make it something like a menu that pops up by right clicking on the editor space, showing the different organelles available.

_________________Look at how far we've come when people thought we'd get nowhere. Imagine how far we can go if we try to get somewhere.

This kind of setup is more designed for flexibility between stages, as per the different tabs. I see your point about inventory/shop and I do agree. The locked parts are the ones you haven't found in the world yet. Also, should we have a techtree for 'evolving' parts?